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“Good,” Cole growls, dropping the boy’s face and standing. “You aremine,” he shouts out over them, the words again ringing with that power I don’t understand. “You will obey my orderswithouthesitation. Is that understood?”

The boys shout out trembling little affirmations, all bowing to Cole, lowering their heads, baring their necks. I stare around at them in shock, not…not getting it. How did Cole seize control so completely, so fast?

“His Alpha Command is strong,” a little voice whispers beside me. I frown and look over at Diana, who nods wisely to me. “You are a powerful Goddess, if you can controlhim.”

Baffled, I look back at Cole, deciding that I’m going to need to have some questions answered quite soon.

“Sit down,” Cole calls out, calmer now as he straightens to his full, formidable height. “Be still. I have questions for you.”

My face scrunches up as all the boys settle themselves on the ground, staring up at him like…like they’re in some kindof kindergarten class and he’s their teacher. What…what is happening? How did they go from trying to be our captors to docile littlekidsin like…ten seconds?

“Are you all right?” Cole asks, looking over his shoulder at me.

“No!” I shout.

His eyes flare and he turns fully, but I huff and shake my head, shoot out a hand to point at the boys. “I’mfine,Cole – do you seriously have them under control?”

He snarls, apparently still too angry for words, the noise the only affirmation I’m going to get.

“Fine,” I say, turning my hand over and nodding towards the backpack, which I can’t reach anymore. “You handlethat,I need to bandage this,” I say, nodding down to the little girl’s cut arm. It’s not deep, thank god.

Cole nods and quickly grabs the backpack, passing it to the closest girl, who hands it to me. I concentrate on being a nurse as Cole turns back to the boys.

“Who sent you?” Cole asks, his tone rough and displeased. He crosses his arms, glaring down at the little ragged crew, some of whom sniff and look miserable. Others just stare at Cole, fully awed.

“No one sent us,” the head boy says, his head hanging. I note for the first time that he’s a handsome little boy, larger than the rest, with brown hair and freckles over his cheeks and nose. “Or, well, we’re scouts, so ourSuperiorsent us. But we attacked you becausewewanted to!”

“Becausehewanted to!” a red-haired boy snaps, pointing a livid finger at the freckled leader. “I wanted to go to King-bossand report, butJohnnysaid it would take too long!”

“I also didn’t want to attack!” a small black-haired boy says, his eyes flaring wide as he raises a hand high. “Isaidit was dumb! Isaidthis would happen! I wasright!”

The leader scowls, looking down at the ground, ashamed.

“Enough,” Cole snarls. The boys fall quiet, and my eyebrows again raise at the remarkable control he has over them.

Is this…like is this magic? What’s happening here?

“Who knows we are here?” Cole snaps. “How many scouts did you send back?”

The questions come rapid-fire, then, and the boys spill out a story that indicates that they attacked en masse, thinking it was the only way to overtake us. They report that theyexpectedcasualties, but thought thehonorof turning in such a “big boy Alpha enemy” would be worth the loss of life.

I raise my eyebrows at this as I bandage my little girl’s arm, thinking that that’s…rather grim, isn’t it? Theirlivesfor the honor of capturing Cole Kincaid? Doesn’t seem quite worth it to me.

The little girl I’m patching up stares up at me with big green eyes, watching my every move. I lean closer to her, glancing at Cole and the boys. “How does he know they’re not lying?”

Her face twists as she peers at me, I think wondering if I’m stupid. “Theycan’t,” she whispers back. “He’s their Alpha now. He has Alpha Command.”

I tilt my head to the side, staring first at her and then at Cole as I tie off her bandage. What the hell does that mean?

“Why did you attack us?” Cole asks, apparently content that no one besides these scouts knows we’re here.

“Because,” the head boy says, raising his head to glare hatefully at Cole again. “You stole all ourgirls!”

Cole glances back at the rest of us, his eyebrows raised. “These areyourgirls?”

“No!” shouts another – the little dark-haired boy again. “I don’t want them! You can have ‘em!”

A few girls pressed to my side start to growl.